Harran & Göbekli Tepe Excursion
Took a taxi from Sanliurfa to both Harran and Göbekli Tepe rather than renting a car as it was somewhat less expensive, and the driver knew where he was going whereas I do not know the roads. I was glad I did as there was construction on the highway to Harran that would have confused me, but didn’t faze the taxi driver in the least.
The drive from Sanliurfa now goes through scenery similar to Yuma and Imperial Valley with arid hillsides and green vegetable fields in the valleys. The last time I was here, which was three years ago, also in June, I remember it everything being sandy colored, with very little vegetation. The area also seemed considerably poorer then compared with what I saw today; new construction was blooming throughout the route. I was told that since the dam was built the economy has dramatically improved. This improvement can also be seen in the city and in the archeological sites, all of which have major reconstruction and renovation projects underway. The new archeological museum in Sanliurfa opened three weeks ago and is at least ten times larger than the old one. It is closed today, as it is Monday, but I will get inside tomorrow.
Harran has also benefitted from the new prosperity. The fort, which was a mass of collapsing mud a few years ago, now has firm stone block foundations, complete with recognizable towers and separate sections. The fort is among the oldest building structures in the region, as it was built by the Hittites in the 2nd Millennium BCE. During that period it was known to have a sun and moon temple, and as it was the Hittites, there should have been a Storm God temple as well, but that is not listed in the literature I found. When the Romans took over the region, they built temples to their sun god, Mithra, but there is no mention of Artemis or Selene as Moon goddesses. The earlier moon god, Sin, was masculine, and he seems to have been usurped by the Roman warrior sun god, who was brought from Persia, at the castle but not at his major temple in the old city, which lasted until the Byzantine era. The final phase for the fortress came with the Umayyads, who built three levels, the fortress, a mosque, and a caravanserai. These are the three levels that are now being reconstructed.
Not far from the fort is the hill/mound of Harran and there is excavation work going on for early Islamic era graves and earlier findings. Professors from Harran University are conducting the dig and can only work sporadically given their teaching responsibilities. They are assisted by local people, both men and women, who wear traditional bright colored dress that lights up the sandy brown landscape. So far they have found artifacts dating to the 2nd millennium BCE, some of which are on display at the new museum. At the bottom of the hill/mound is the former Harran Ulu Mosque which was built between 744-750 by Caliph II Mervan. It was the largest mosque in Anatolia and according to local lore, was built on the site of a former Sin, the early god of the Moon, temple. The earlier temple dates from the 3rd Millennium. The locals say that it was used as perhaps the world’s first university. It had an observation tower and a pool where, according to local lore, the scholars would identify the movements of the stars and calculate the changing seasons. There is documentary evidence that this was true of the activities in the madressa aligned with the Umayyad era mosque, and there is mention of the Sin Temple in 3 C BCE writings, but nothing about a university until the early years of the Common Era. Nonetheless, numerous early medieval Islamic mathematicians, astronomers and philosophers studied here and wrote works that were later translated into Latin and Greek and brought to the West that spurred Renaissance thought. Some of these include Thabit ibn Qurra (821-901) who developed mathematical theories, studied the movement of the sun, was a renown physician and composed music as well; Abu Abdullah al-Battani (858-929) who is known for his work in algebra and geometry (he was the main reference for information regarding solar and lunar eclipses until the end of the 18th C); and Sinan ibn Thabit (d. 943) wrote a book that covered the history of the world to his own time, predating the Encyclopedists by about 500 years. Today all that is left are a few arches, 33m of the earlier 35m observatory tower, and a few rock piles. It is possible to make out the general size of the former structures, but what they looked like is up to the imagination.
About 1.5 km from the former mosque is Jacob’s Well. This is the well where Jacob met Rebecca as narrated in the Old Testament. Three years ago the well was in the middle of a barren field; today it lies on the edge of the new inner city of Harran surrounded by plots of dirt that have been tilled for gardens, irrigated by a hose from the famous well and closed off by a locked fence. The lock wasn’t latched so I was able to go in. When I asked if there were any local legends about the well, the guide, who I met when the taxi pulled into Harran, said that women come to get water from this well from all around even though there are hundreds of similar wells around. They come as this is the only well that has ‘sweet’ water, i.e., drinkable water; the others are all brackish. It is fairly amazing to think that the well still has water after 4,000 years.
The city wall was not that old; it was built by the Romans. The four kilometer long barrier had (I was told) five gates named for the cities/regions in the directions they were facing: Anatolia, Aleppo, Mosul, Baghdad, and Rakka. (Some of the guide books say there were eight.)
Harran is also famous for its beehive houses, most of which are only 150—200 years old. They are remarkable structures for this climate as inside they remain cool in the summer heat, which can get upwards of 60C, and stay warm in the winter. The base is square to somewhat rectangular and made from mud bricks and straw. The beehive starts at about should height and comes together in an open oculus at about 14-15 ft in height. Many of the ‘hives’ have brick shaped openings that function as windows. Each of the ‘hives’ is connected by a doorway to the others, forming a complete community. The hives can be added or deleted fairly easily to meet the needs of changing family size.
The guide’s family owned one of the tourist stop/shop beehives and we had cay (tea) there before parting ways. While in Harran he showed me the sites and around the wall on his motorcycle. It was fun to ride across Old Testament desert landscapes on a zippy two-wheeled machine, but I was also imagining the scowl on the face of the patriarch of the people of the Book. Oh well, I had a great time. Harran is a fascinating village given its lengthy history. People have lived in the region since Neolithic times, and during Abraham’s time it was a major center of commerce. Some say that it was the city where Abraham was born, others say that is in Urfa, still others in Ur near the Gulf and that it was Abraham’s brother, Lot’s father, who was born in Harran. Regardless of what one believes or what the truth might actually be, the Abrahamic legends are embedded in this landscape.
My purpose for coming back to this region was to see Göbekli Tepe again. This site is far older than Harran and changed how we understand early religious practice and the abilities of hunter-gatherer peoples. Göbekli Tepe is a man-made mound that Prof. Klaus Schmidt from Germany started excavating with Turkish colleagues in 1995. Since then the site has led to some remarkable discoveries, not the least of which is that in around 9,600 BCE, i.e., about 12,000 years ago, people built a huge megalithic sacred site that was used for about 2,000 years, and then purposely covered up, apparently as a protective measure. Many of up to 60 ton T-stones in the center of rings of circles have amazing reliefs of animals, and complete animal shaped 3-D sculptures have also been found. Three years ago the site was uncovered, and it was fairly easy to take pictures of the T-stones and get a sense for how the circles fit together. Today, unfortunately, this is no longer possible. The entire central part of the site has a roof and wooden beams criss-cross the entire dig area so that it is very difficult to get good shots of any of the still visible reliefs. Most of the reliefs have been boxed up or re-covered with stones. Some of the Ts that were completely uncovered during my last visit, have now been partially re-buried. I do not know the reasoning behind this, but the Syrian border is only about 20 km away, and ISIS is not a friendly neighbor, so this may be a very good thing. Nonetheless, I was disappointed; the way the area is now does not have the awe-inspiring effect it did a few years ago. It is no longer a sacred site, but an excavation site. Prof. Schmidt died last year; perhaps it just as well he didn’t see what happened to his life’s work.
The museum in town has many of the reliefs and sculptures found in Göbelki Tepe and the entire Sanliurfa/Harran region. I am looking forward to seeing them tomorrow.
